Body count not kept low, says Thailand

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Official figures of the dead, missing and injured are posted at City Hall, Phuket.Photo: Paul Harris

The Thai Government yesterday denied it was understating the
tsunami toll to protect its tourism industry, saying its figures
were honest and accurate.

"There has been no attempt by the authorities to tamper with the
figures of the deaths, injuries and the missing," Foreign Affairs
Department spokesman Manasaree Srisodopol said.

"I don't see how the body numbers can affect the tourism
industry. I don't see the relationship between the two
matters."

On Wednesday Bangkok's English-language Nation
newspaper asked if the Government was keeping the death toll
artificially low to protect the $A10 billion-a-year tourism
industry.

The paper said the official toll of 5000 "lags so far behind the
reality on the ground people want to know why".

Mr Srisodopol said he would not comment on the article, but said
it would be impossible for the Thais to manipulate the figures
considering the number of international experts involved in victim
identification.

An Australian Federal Police spokesman said there was no
suggestion of any attempt to manipulate figures. "We are not aware
of any evidence to conceal the enormity of the tragedy," he said.
"The numbers are the numbers."

Overnight, the number of missing in Thailand dropped sharply,
with 3716 people - including 940 foreigners - still listed as
missing, compared with 4499 people a day earlier. The number has
almost halved in four days.

Mr Srisodopol said some Thais had reported family members
missing at three levels of government office, and initially the
same person had been counted three times. As cross-checking
continued, the numbers became more precise.

"As for the dead, the body count is done officially in the
hospital and in the areas where the bodies are taken to the
morgues," he said. "The numbers cannot be tampered with.

"Each day, additional bodies are taken in after searches by Thai
and foreign volunteers. The numbers have been increasing slightly
as the days go by."

Bodies are still being found in Phang Nga province, which
includes the devastated tourist area around Khao Lak.

Temporary morgues in the province hold about 4000 bodies, more
than half of them foreigners. The overall death toll in Thailand is
5288 people - 2565 Thais, 2510 foreigners, and 213 unknown.

"The problem is trying to identify the bodies of victims which
are starting to decompose," Mr Srisodopol said.